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You have twice repeated this "quote" in this thread as if it were an actual, legitimate quote from Carley, when it most certainly is not. So the only question remains is -- are you bearing false witness out of intentional dishonesty, or because you were too stupid to understand that those "quotes" were bogus? Are you honorable enough to retract this falsehood? Or will you be like almost every other creationist I have caught posting falsehoods, and fail to acknowledge your sin? And why do creationists on the whole turn out to be such shameless prevaricators? I really don't get it. I never have.

This is the part of the whole thing that I find strangest and scariest. These people belong to a religion which supposedly sets great store by honesty. Yet the best (and rarest) that they can be do when shown to have (at the very least) perpetuated a falsehood is to fall silent. No hint of an apology for posting quote mines or fallacious arguments. Creatos Acknowledging their errors or having learned something are as rare as a solar eclipse.

Almost invariably the response to being caught in a falsehood is one or more of the following:

a. Immediately repeat the falsehood in the same words.

b. Claim not to have been lying.

c. Accuse the person who has caught them of "name calling"

d. Accuse the person who has caught them of lying.

e. Accuse the person who has caught them of thinking like a liberal

f. Accuse all evolutionists of being pinko homosexuals.

g. Accuse academia of wanting to corrupt the morals of youth.

h. Disappear from the current thread, but a few days later repost the identical discredited argument in another crevo thread.

i. Change the subject by responding with another false argument or article gleaned from the same lying source as the previous one.

j. Claim to be just doing their best and not really to understand this stuff. (which would be fine if they then stopped, but they hardly ever do - slow learners)

What is it that makes them behave this way? I hypothesise that they conflate their belief in biblical innerrancy with their own lives and behavior. If they are shown to be wrong about anything then that threatens their religion. So confronted with their error they go into denial. "I speak for Christ therefore what I say must be true"

I think you may be on to something there. I've tried to argue many times that creationists think that if they give an inch, the masses will suddenly lose any reason to continue to act morally, and society will collapse. But some of the behavior I see here goes even deeper than that. For many creationists there's got to be something more psychological than philosophical going on.

I've tried an experiment of repeatedly confronting them with their lie, over and over again every time they pop up in another crevo thread. They adamantly refuse to admit their mistake/dishonesty, and launch into personal attacks against me for daring to question their integrity by lying about them (where the "lies" are links back to their own postings).

What is it that makes them behave this way? I hypothesise that they conflate their belief in biblical innerrancy with their own lives and behavior. If they are shown to be wrong about anything then that threatens their religion. So confronted with their error they go into denial. "I speak for Christ therefore what I say must be true."

Sorry I'm still catching up. I'll give you my Cliff's Note's version. There is a valid belief that people of faith have, that atheists would use science as an argument against their faith. As an example, look how easily Bible class was removed from public school.

Creationists have even gone so far as to give the atheists credit for inventing a religion of their own. Since atheists rarely acknowledge their belief, creationists have called it "evolution" and have endowed it with it's own characteristics drawn from several scientific disciplines. This effort has become a fairly lucrative business. Anti-evolution literature alone has supposedly topped $1 billion/year.

Evangelical Churches near me routinely invite speakers on "evolution" who repeat pretty much what you see posted here. One of my co-workers spent about 45 minutes at lunch one day explaining to me why the science teacher who spoke at his Church against "evolution" - with the degree in English Literature - should be credible. The ID'ers moved in later to try to give the movement more gravitas (heehee - I love that word since the 2000 election). I think this movement generated the notion that anti-evolution leaders should acquire science degrees to boost the validity of their claims.

Most of the creationist/ID crowd have NO science background - also thanks to the public school system - so they'll believe anything their heroes tell them. And there will always be heroes because there's money to be made in the field. So when you make science arguments to them, it falls on deaf ears. they don't know any science, or very little science, so they don't understand what you're saying. I don't believe that they're lying to you. They just don't know.

Plus I don't think they really want to make a scientific argument anyway. Sooner or later they'll resort to scripture or the argument from ignorance, "Evolution can't explain the eye so it's false". The best approach on these threads is to attempt to maintain your head and respond so that lurkers, who are genuinely interested, can get useful information. It worked for my co-worker.